


sat by the river and it made me complete

by aeriamamaduck



Series: Somewhere to Begin [9]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Animal Transformation, Domestic Fluff, Family Feels, Fatherhood, Happy Ending, Long-Haired Victor Nikiforov, Love, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, No Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Parenthood, Post-Time Skip, Shapeshifting, Yuri Plisetsky and Victor Nikiforov are Brothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 12:29:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17425925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeriamamaduck/pseuds/aeriamamaduck
Summary: Victor's hand joined his underneath the table, giving it a long, loving squeeze, and Yuuri smiled at him.





	sat by the river and it made me complete

**Author's Note:**

> I'm an emotional mess right now, fam

Yuuri woke up to a face full of silver fur, immediately wrinkling his nose with a groan as he drew away.

 

"Victor..." He nudged the heavy shape beside him, earning a soft whine in return. "Victor, Change back. It's too early for me to suffocate."

 

He heard a low rumble from Victor before the fur disappeared and Victor's shape became considerably smaller, and Yuuri found himself wrapped up in his mate's arms in a warm embrace as Victor hummed happily and nuzzled his hair. "Sorry," he murmured, sounding anything but. "We went out before dawn. You know he likes the quiet."

 

Yuuri smiled against Victor's warm neck, leeching the heat off of his body and closing his eyes again like he could actually go back to sleep for a few more hours. "Did it go alright?" he mumbled, tangling their legs together underneath the blanket.

 

"It went fine. He wanted to run," Victor replied, kissing the top of Yuuri's head and dragging his fingers through his hair.

 

Yuuri only lasted a few moments before coming to the conclusion that he was definitely not going to sleep again, sighing reluctantly before drawing away from Victor and sitting up to give himself a good, long stretch, rolling his shoulders back and letting out a long yawn. No use wasting more time trying to head back to sleep, especially if it was well past dawn. There was too much to do before they returned to Hasetsu for the winter. "Did you two eat?"

 

"Mmm, shared a rabbit," Victor murmured, hugging Yuuri's pillow to his chest. "I'll make you some eggs in a few minutes."

 

Yuuri smiled at him before leaning back down to press a kiss to Victor's cheek, then got up from the bed.

 

When he first stepped into Victor and Yurio's home five years before he'd been surprised by the spaciousness. Every surface was covered in dust, of course, since it had gone uninhabited for so long. Cleaning everything up had been time-consuming but entertaining, helping Yuuri and Victor take their minds off of the events of the past summer.

 

They both had nightmares, which came with less frequency as the years passed. Even so, there were still nights where either one of them would wake up in a panic, frantically searching for the scar on Yuuri's belly.

 

He touched it reflexively, smiling as he remembered how Victor treated him like glass in the weeks after his return from the war, holding himself back until Yuuri had finally had enough one night and told him that he was completely recovered and wouldn't break if Victor touched him. 

 

He left their bedroom after washing up and pulling a shirt on and automatically made his way towards what used to be Yuri's old room, opening the door a few inches as quietly as he could to peek in on its occupant.

 

Alexei seemed to be the only one of them who managed to fall asleep again, his little face smooth in repose as he lay over his blanket. Yuuri chuckled softly, watching the boy sleep for a few moments before quietly closing the door again.

 

The five-year-old had been living with them for almost a year, though for the first handful of months they'd all had to make various adjustments, Yuuri and Victor trying their best to be patient with the small, traumatized boy. They'd found him in the nearby forest late one afternoon, unconscious and covered in several scrapes, and slightly malnourished. When they brought him home he tearfully told them how he'd one day unexpectedly turned into a wolf in front of his father, his only living parent after his mother died giving birth to him. The next day his father took him out into the forest, where Alyosha had quickly gotten separated from him.

 

Yakov looked grim as soon as he heard that, and privately told Victor that he had no doubt that the boy had been abandoned by his human father for Changing spontaneously.

 

Once Alyosha had recovered enough strength, Yuuri and Victor took a few days to travel to the closest human settlements so Yuuri could ask if anyone had lost a boy in the forest recently, describing Alyosha as best he could while the boy waited with Victor.

 

Either everyone he asked had no idea what he was talking about or they were outright lying to him, which confirmed Yakov's suspicions. Alyosha, unfortunately, had guessed that he'd been abandoned, that he'd done something that had displeased his father, making him leave him. There was no consoling him after that, and Yuuri felt so powerless and furious at the man responsible.

 

Still, Alyosha latched on to both of them, refusing to speak to anyone else or leave their sides, crying in terror if he couldn't find them. 

 

Yuuri never pictured becoming a parent this way.

 

Then again he never really thought about the possibility, especially not when he was living on his own, quite sure that if he didn't deserve companionship, he certainly didn't deserve to be a parent. Once Alyosha found his footing in his new life, Yuuri realized just how helplessly attached he and Victor had become. One night Yuuri entered their bedroom to find Alyosha lying in the middle of their bed, dozing quietly as Victor stroked his hair and told him a story in a soft tone of voice, a look of total adoration on his face. Yuuri's heart had ached sweetly at the sight of it.

 

Remarkably, Alyosha hesitated just as Victor had when it came to Changing, reluctant to do so after all the pain it had caused him. He shied away from the rest of the village, hiding behind Yuuri whenever someone Changed into some animal shape. The only one he seemed to trust completely was Victor, even when he was a wolf.

 

Eventually there came a day when Alyosha couldn't seem to help himself anymore, and Changed into a tiny ball of light brown fur that followed Victor around, and Alyosha began to open up more and more, despite those moments when he fell into inevitable melancholy that had him seeking the quiet around Yuuri, watching him work with his herbs.

 

The best days were the ones where Alyosha would race towards Yurio and Otabek's home, looking for a playfight with his uncle (which Yuri only encouraged so long as Alyosha was still the size of a puppy).

 

A little while later, while Victor was preparing something for Yuuri to eat, Alyosha appeared in the kitchen, yawning and rubbing his eye as he dragged his chair out. "I'm hungry," he mumbled, blinking at them sleepily.

 

"Hungry? Victor says you practically ate that rabbit all by yourself," Yuuri told him with a soft laugh while Victor cracked another egg.

 

"That was  _ages_ ago," Alyosha replied before yawning again.

 

Victor beamed as he cooked and said, "Soon enough you'll catch one yourself. That's sure to make Yura jealous."

 

"Isn't he a little too old for that?" Yuuri asked with a smirk.

 

"He'll always be an adorable kitten to me, no matter how long he's been mated to Otabek," Victor replied as he loaded up their plates and lay them out on the table. Neither of them could resist their amusement when Yuri came to them with  _that_ bit of news, eyes glinting in defiance. Contrary to his expectations, though, Victor had been ecstatic, grabbing a flabbergasted Otabek and hugging him tightly.

 

Yuuri was glad they'd be joining them on the trip to Hasetsu. It would be good to see everyone again, to introduce Alyosha to his home and the family who would no doubt love him. He was only a little nervous after Yuuri and Victor suggested it, and he would probably go back to being shy and quiet when he met Yuuri's family. But they'd give him all the time he needed.

 

In the meantime, Yuuri wanted to make sure they left things as taken care of as possible before they left. He was by no means the only healer in the village, but Victor's glowing descriptions of Yuuri's talent had helped the Changers trust him more and more as time went by. Mila had quickly sought Yuuri out to learn everything she could from him, so he was sure the village would be left in good hands while they were gone. "I was going to go check on Georgi and Galina's baby today," he said to Alyosha. "Want to come along?"

 

Alyosha gave him little nods and a small smile, and Yuuri allowed himself to picture the future, a future for his and Victor's unexpected son, and for the two of them, in this home and their home in Hasetsu. Even that lonely cabin where Yuuri had spent so many years, never letting himself picture any sort of future for himself.

 

But the future existed, one that Yuuri hadn't expected ever since he let himself imagine it again, finding it in the way Victor rained kisses on his face and in the way Alyosha held on tight to their hands as he walked between them. 

 

Victor's hand joined his underneath the table, giving it a long, loving squeeze, and Yuuri smiled at him. He was grateful, for him, for Alyosha, for the life they made even after Yuuri spent so much time wishing his own would just end. 

 

Yuuri would worry. He would have anxieties about a lot of things, wondering how he and Victor would handle it all, but the point was that he thought about the future, and would hang on tight to his family, to every single member of it, forever.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for following this story from beginning to end and for all your wonderful comments. this AU has been a real ride, and I've had a lot of fun writing it.
> 
> thank you for reading


End file.
